Mainframe Services & Solutions

April 2021

A research report comparing provider strengths, challenges and competitive differentiators

QuadrantReport

Mainframe Services & SolutionsU.S. 2021

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The research and analysis presented in this report includes research from the ISG

Provider Lens™ program, ongoing ISG Research programs, interviews with ISG advisors,

briefings with services providers, and analysis of publicly available market information

from multiple sources. The data collected for this report represents information that

ISG believes to be current as of February 2021, for providers who actively participated

as well as for providers who did not. ISG recognizes that many mergers and acquisitions

have taken place since that time, but those changes are not reflected in this report.

All revenue references are in U.S. dollars ($US) unless noted.

The lead author for this report is Pedro L. Bicudo Maschio. The editors Ipshita Sengupta

and Grant Gross. The research analyst is Srinivasan PN and the data analyst is Anirban

Choudhury. The quality and consistency advisors are John Schick, Tony Mataya, and

Shriram Natarajan.

About this Report

ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant Report | April 2021

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© 2021 Information Services Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior permission is strictly prohibited. Information contained in this report is based on the best available and reliable resources. Opinions expressed in this report reflect ISG’s judgment at the time of this report and are subject to change without notice. ISG has no liability for omissions, errors or completeness of information in this report. ISG Research™ and ISG Provider Lens™ are trademarks of Information Services Group, Inc.

1 Executive Summary

5 Introduction

17 Mainframe Modernization Services

23 Mainframe Transformation Services

31 MFaaS – Mainframe-as-a-Service

36 Mainframe Operations

41 Mainframe Modernization Software

45 Methodology

Section Name

1111

Executive Summary

guide reasoning in this case. More than 24 months would lead to a bias in favor of long

application modernizations, which are not recommended. Decision-makers will find more

details about the key topics that follow.

Mainframe legacy applications are dead: IBM Z platform has a future running z/OS,

Linux, and other operating systems. However, for enterprise clients, the future of the

hardware is irrelevant. Business applications are what is important. COBOL, Assembler,

PL1, Natural, and other legacy programming languages are procedural and outdated.

Modern applications are built on object-oriented programming languages such as Java,

.NET, and C#. Investing in modernizing the toolset for agility will bring more significant

benefits in the long run.

The top 100 have mainframes: According to IBM, “92 of the world's top 100 banks, 23

of the 25 top U.S. retailers, and nine out of 10 of the world's largest insurance companies

run System z mainframe. Nine out of the top 10 global life and health insurance providers

use a System z mainframe. And 71 percent of global Fortune 500 companies are System

z clients.” These facts do not suggest that enterprises should be writing new COBOL

applications.

Optimizing the mainframe: Clients have several tools to optimize their mainframes.

Providers of MFaaS and mainframe modernization can bring 10 to 25 percent cost savings

while transitioning services. They check configurations, software licenses, and dead code

that may waste mainframe resources. Also, competitive bidding processes have historically

helped reduce cost.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis is the first time ISG Provider Lens™ studies have included mainframe modernization.

It is a response to buyers' requests for advice on what to do with their mainframes. This

research qualified 47 vendors and service providers in five quadrants. According to these

companies, the mainframe modernization market has been accelerating in the last two

years, driven by the need to increase business agility.

In the preparation phase for this study, we found a lot of articles speculating about what a

CIO should do with the mainframes. Common questions include: How should they include

the mainframe in their cloud strategies? As COBOL programmers are getting close to

retirement, what are the risks of facing a skill shortage?

In this report, clients will find five alternatives represented in each quadrant. Mainframe

modernization considers the choice of introducing agility into legacy mainframe

applications. Mainframe transformation deals with options to move all applications off

the mainframe. Mainframe-as-a-Service (MFaaS) supplements the modernization path,

providing a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) business model. Those that do not plan to modernize

consider outsourcing mainframe operations. These four quadrants help clients find the

right service provider that can deliver to their needs. The fifth quadrant provides clients

with modernization tool options for those that prefer to run modernization projects

themselves.

A CIO should reflect on the real issue before figuring out if there is a need to modernize

or change the mainframe. Setting a short timeframe (12 to 18 months) is imperative to


© 2021 Information Services Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

11

ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant Report | Juni 2018

Modernizing the mainframe: The most frequently used method is encapsulating batch

and business functions into microservices that can run directly in the cloud. Application

programming interfaces (APIs) that expose business function or mainframe data to

other applications are always cited as part of the modernization. When the intention is

to decommission the mainframe, modernization results in moving all applications to the

cloud (or replatforming). Two methods that are prevalent include emulators, which enable

COBOL to run in the cloud, and COBOL code compiled to Java or .NET to run in the cloud.

Re-engineering applications off the mainframe: A method that is gaining momentum

is automated application re-engineering. Tools are fast, reliable, and produce quality

code. Recent advances in methods and technology include artificial intelligence (AI),

programming frameworks, code quality inspection, and automated testing. In the past,

these tools required expensive on-premises processing power; however, at present, these

tools run in the cloud with an increased processing capacity at much lower costs as well as

much lower risks. Re-engineering of applications is viable and cost-effective.

Re-engineering: Most case studies cover less than 5 million lines of code converted to

Java. Other languages include .NET and C#. Re-engineering is completed in a few months.

The largest case study was 20 million lines of code converted in 20 months. Automated re-

engineering can convert 2 million lines of code in one hour. Most of the project duration is

spent on testing and quality assurance.


Executive SummaryISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant Report | April 2021

Converting COBOL to Java: Direct conversion does not include re-engineering. Data and

logic stay the same, and the new code behaves the same as the old code. These conversion

tools handle COBOL and many legacy languages and write modern code where Java is

the most popular language. Converting code is much faster than re-engineering but also

involves many testing cycles. These automation tools can convert 28 million lines of code in

one hour.

Emulators: Replatforming and moving applications to x86 servers from mainframes have

long been a possibility. The recent development observed is cloud virtual machines have

increased the capacity of each x86 server, and the virtual servers can scale horizontally

(many server images install within minutes). Cloud capacity and improved emulation

technologies enable workloads of more than 100,000 MIPS to run in the cloud.

The database and storage myth: Mainframes hold vast amounts of data, which suggests

that mainframe databases cannot go into the cloud. However, none of the participants

in this survey mention issues associated with database size or storage complexity. Cloud

data lakes are popular alternatives for storage, flat files, and virtual tape backup. Service

providers are unanimous in converting legacy databases to any relational database

with automated tools. The most popular choice to replace IBM DB2 is the open-source

PostgreSQL.

The performance myth: Mainframes scale vertically, by adding more disk, CPU, and

memory. The cloud scales horizontally, adding more servers of the same capacity. Any of

the methods for replatforming mainframes to the cloud offer the same performance, or

better, because of horizontal scaling.

22

Section Name

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jobs.). Code re-engineering and code conversion tools provide automation to replace

COBOL with Java. It performs well on any cloud and any relational database. Application

development tools can handle both languages, providing a smooth transition for

application development shops.

Estimating project cost: Vendor and providers usually mention lines of code (LOC) as the

base for cost estimation (76 percent of the respondents). However, complexity, tools, and

size have an additional impact on pricing. Some statistics include:

� Modernization and code refactoring cost: US$0.25 to US$2.30 per LOC; project

duration: 2 to 36 months; and project cost: US$100,000 to US$25 million.

� Transformation and code conversion cost: US$0.50 to US$8.00 per LOC; project

duration: 6 to 60 months; and project cost: US$100,000 to US$50 million.

Estimating project viability: Mainframe MIPS measures hardware capacity; it is not used

for project estimations. However, it provides the first cost estimate for the cloud. A rough

estimation is one x86 core in the cloud can replace 50 to 100 MIPS mainframe.

� Top 100 mainframe clients manage more than 50,000 MIPS, with few of them

operating more than 200,000 MIPS.

� Very large MIPS client manages 10,000 to 50,000 MIPS.

� Large clients manage 5,000 to 10,000 MIPS.

� Mid-sized clients manage 2,000 to 5,000 MIPS.

The skill shortage myth: Service providers have demonstrated they can attract and train

young talents to work on mainframes. The assessed providers employ more than 170,000

mainframe programming experts, including 60,000 COBOL programmers. In operations,

more than 53,000 experts keep mainframes running. They have five years of experience

on average. Only 6 percent of the mainframe operators have more than 14 years of

experience. However, these numbers need to be put in perspective. COBOL skills are just

as rare as SAP. A LinkedIn search returns more than 350,000 people with COBOL skills,

288,000 experts in ABAP (SAP programing language), 3 million C# programmers, and an

astonishing 10 million people with Java skills.

Offshoring is a solution for skills shortage: All participating service providers have global

operations and COBOL delivery capacity in India. The assumption that a COBOL career is

not interesting to youth generations is valid in the U.S.; however, global companies have

found ways to attract and retain talents to work on mainframes and COBOL.

Knowledge versus innovation dilemma: Knowledge retention can be a challenge

for clients that migrate from COBOL to Java because newly hired programmers do

not understand the business and the company may not have a career path to offer to

experienced COBOL programmers. A few solutions that compile COBOL to Java enable

the co-existence of both programmers for a smooth transition, enabling for knowledge

transfer.

Java is by far the preferred destination language when moving off the mainframe. Other

languages include .NET, C#, Python, and Powershell (the last two for scripting batch



33

Executive Summary

ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant Report | Juni 2018

� Small clients manage less than 2,000 MIPS.

� Top mainframe outsourcing providers manage more than 300,000 MIPS each, up to

millions of MIPS.

� The average outsourced mainframe has 4500 MIPS per client.

� The U.S. concentrates 60 percent of global mainframe MIPS.

Clients running less than 5,000 MIPS should consider migrating their mainframes to the

cloud. Any of the migration options are viable and cost-effective, providing short-term ROI.

Clients hosting 10,000 MIPS and more can consider MFaaS as the first move for cost saving

while assessing the modernization and transformation options. Top 100 mainframe clients

run mainframe farms, not single monoliths. Outsourcing is a good option to reduce cost,

while offshoring eliminates the skill shortage risk. Simultaneously, top mainframe clients

can consider clustering their mainframe systems around similar business functions to

study each cluster separately.

Financing mainframe modernization is a challenge: Many companies consider

mainframe modernization a low return investment. A CIO of a large bank with more than

100,000 MIPS responded to our questions saying, “My mainframe is running the bank’s

support functions, it is certainly not a problem, and I am not going to invest in it, not even

to turn it off.” Vendors of modernization tools responded that, in most cases, the CIO sees

the value but considers that the risk is an impediment. Vendors and service providers are

working on making the projects faster, secure, and cost-effective to enable mainframe

modernizations.


Executive SummaryISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant Report | April 2021

Consider self-financing the modernization: Some providers of application management

and support services (AMS) propose deals that include mainframe modernization in the

AMS goals. As a result, clients take the maintenance budget they already have and use it to

move applications to low-cost platforms and code that is easier to maintain. Their three-

year deal becomes a transformation program.

44

Introduction

Introduction



Definition Mainframes have evolved and scaled to handle high transaction per second (TPS) requirements. These machines consolidate many high-performing CPUs (cores) into a single hardware platform. Their architecture distributes tasks to cores that run in parallel, sharing the internal bus, memory and I/O, thereby providing superior performance. Because of its more than 40 years history, many mainframes today host legacy programming language applications written with COBOL, RPG, Fortran, PL/1, Natural and others.

To comply with digital transformation business requirements, clients can modernize their mainframe applications and introduce agile methods as well as automate continuous integration tools. Two alternatives exist in the market, which include modernization and transformation. Modernization updates legacy code without changing the programming language and introduces automation,

55

� Simplified Illustration

Mainframe Services & Solutions 2021

Mainframe Modernization Services Mainframe Transformation Services

MFaaS – Mainframe-as-a-Service Mainframe Operations

Mainframe Modernization Software

� Source: ISG 2021


Definition (cont.)

DevOps and modern Agile practices. Mainframe transformation converts legacy code into modern languages to run on modern platforms, including private and public clouds.

To align with PAYG approaches, service providers have been offering MFaaS, which includes all hardware, software licensing and operations under a pay-per-MIPS arrangement. MFaaS is provided in a shared environment. Clients that need PAYG but prefer not to share resources may opt for managed mainframe operations, which enable custom combinations of hardware and licensing ownership.

This study focuses on understanding client objectives and assessing provider capabilities to deliver mainframe services, including modernization, transformation and supporting toolset.

IntroductionISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant Report | April 2021

The ISG Provider Lens™ study offers IT decision-makers the following:

� Transparency on providers’ relevant strengths and weaknesses

� A differentiated positioning of providers by segments

� A perspective on different markets

This study focuses on the U.S. mainframe market.

ISG studies serve as an important decision-making basis for positioning, key relationships and go-to-market considerations. ISG advisors and enterprise clients use information from these reports to evaluate their current vendor relationships and potential new engagements.

66


Definition (cont.)

This study considers four mainframe markets: modernization, transformation, as-a-service and operations. To enable clients to select the tools available for modernization and transformation, this study includes a mainframe modernization software quadrant. This ISG Provider Lens™ quadrant study introduces five quadrants on mainframe services and solutions.

Mainframe Modernization Services: This quadrant focuses on service providers that offer legacy application modernization, introducing code repositories such as GitHub or similar options, DevOps integration and testing automation over original programming languages, such as COBOL, adding optimization to enable agility. After the modernization is complete, clients can embrace agile methodologies in the development and maintenance of applications running on mainframe systems.


Mainframe Transformation Services: This quadrant assesses application development and maintenance service providers that have evolved their application modernization methodologies to refactor, replatform or rewrite legacy programming language applications written with COBOL, RPG, Fortran, PL/1, Natural and others, enabling the same logic and business rules to run on any platform, including the public cloud.

MFaaS – Mainframe-as-a-Service: This quadrant assesses infrastructure service providers that offer shared IBM Z mainframes under a pay-per-use contract model. Services include facilities, hardware, connectivity, mainframe network management, licensing, operating system and subsystems, tools, and other services.

Mainframe Operations: This quadrant assesses traditional outsourcing providers that have long been offering mainframe services. Typical participants employ experienced practitioners to cover legacy mainframe technologies as well as the most recent mainframe releases. Services can be delivered on any hosting facility (client- or provider-owned).

77

Scope of the Report



Provider Classifications

The provider position reflects the suitability of IT providers for a defined market

segment (quadrant). Without further additions, the position always applies to all

company sizes classes and industries. In case the IT service requirements from

enterprise customers differ and the spectrum of IT providers operating in the local

market is sufficiently wide, a further differentiation of the IT providers by performance

is made according to the target group for products and services. In doing so, ISG

either considers the industry requirements or the number of employees, as well as the

corporate structures of customers and positions IT providers according to their focus

area. As a result, ISG differentiates them, if necessary, into two client target groups that

are defined as follows:

� Mid Market: Companies with 100 to 4,999 employees or revenues between US$20 million and

US$999 million with central headquarters in the respective country, usually privately owned.

� Large Accounts: Multinational companies with more than 5,000 employees or revenue above

US$1 billion, with activities worldwide and globally distributed decision-making structures.

88



The ISG Provider Lens™ quadrants are created using an evaluation matrix containing four segments (Leader, Product & Market Challenger and Contender), and the providers are positioned

accordingly.

Provider Classifications

Leader

The Leaders among the vendors/

providers have a highly attractive

product and service offering and a

very strong market and competitive

position; they fulfill all requirements

for successful market cultivation.

They can be regarded as opinion

leaders, providing strategic impulses

to the market. They also ensure

innovative strength and stability.

Product Challenger

The Product Challengers offer a

product and service portfolio that

provides an above-average coverage

of corporate requirements, but

are not able to provide the same

resources and strengths as the

Leaders regarding the individual

market cultivation categories. Often,

this is due to the respective vendor’s

size or weak footprint within the

respective target segment.

Market Challenger

Market Challengers are also very

competitive, but there is still

significant portfolio potential and

they clearly fall behind the Leaders.

Often, the Market Challengers

are established vendors that

are somewhat slow to address

new trends due to their size and

company structure, and therefore

have some potential to optimize

their portfolio and increase their

attractiveness.

Contender

Contenders still lack mature products

and services or sufficient depth and

breadth in their offering, but also show

some strengths and improvement

potential in their market cultivation

efforts. These vendors are often

generalists or niche players.

99



Each ISG Provider Lens™ quadrant may include a service provider(s) which ISG believes has strong potential to move into the Leader quadrant. This type of provider can be classified as a Rising

Star. Number of providers in each quadrant: ISG rates and positions the most relevant providers according to the scope of the report for each quadrant and limits the maximum of providers per

quadrant to 25 (exceptions are possible).

Provider Classifications (cont.)

Rising Star

Companies that receive the Rising Star award have a promising portfolio or the market experience to become a leader, including the required roadmap and adequate focus on key market trends and customer requirements. Rising Stars also have excellent management and understanding of the local market. This award is only given to vendors or service providers that have made significant progress toward their goals in the last 12 months and are expected to reach the Leader quadrant within the next 12 to 24 months due to their above-average impact and strength for innovation.

Not In

The service provider or vendor was not included in this quadrant. There might be one or several reasons why this designation is applied: ISG could not obtain enough information to position the company; the company does not provide the relevant service or solution as defined for each quadrant of a study; or the company did not qualify due to market share, revenue, delivery capacity, number of customers or other metrics of scale to be directly compared with other providers in the quadrant. Omission from the quadrant does not imply that the service provider or vendor does not offer this service or solution, or confer any other meaning.

1010



Mainframe Services & Solutions - Quadrant Provider Listing 1 of 4

1111

Mainframe Modernization Services

Mainframe Transformation Services

MFaaS – Mainframe-as-a-Service Mainframe Operations Mainframe Modernization

Software

Accenture 4 Not in 4 Leader 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

Advanced 4 Not in 4 Product Challenger 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Leader

Astadia 4 Not in 4 Product Challenger 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

Asysco 4 Not in 4 Product Challenger 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Product Challenger

Atos 4 Leader 4 Leader 4 Leader 4 Leader 4 Not in

Blu Age 4 Not in 4 Product Challenger 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Leader

BMC 4 Contender 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

Capgemini 4 Leader 4 Leader 4 Not in 4 Leader 4 Not in

Cognizant 4 Contender 4 Product Challenger 4 Leader 4 Product Challenger 4 Not in

CPT Global 4 Contender 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

Deloitte 4 Not in 4 Product Challenger 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

DXC 4 Leader 4 Product Challenger 4 Product Challenger 4 Product Challenger 4 Not in



1212

Mainframe Services & Solutions - Quadrant Provider Listing 2 of 4Mainframe Modernization

ServicesMainframe Transformation

ServicesMFaaS – Mainframe-as-a-

Service Mainframe Operations Mainframe Modernization Software

Ensono 4 Leader 4 Contender 4 Leader 4 Leader 4 Not in

Fujitsu 4 Not in 4 Leader 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

GFT 4 Not in 4 Product Challenger 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

GigaSpaces 4 Contender 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

Google 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Leader

GT Software 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Contender

HCL 4 Product Challenger 4 Leader 4 Rising Star 4 Leader 4 Not in

Heirloom 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Rising Star

HostBridge 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Contender

IBM 4 Leader 4 Market Challenger 4 Leader 4 Leader 4 Market Challenger

Infosys 4 Leader 4 Leader 4 Not in 4 Leader 4 Not in

INNOVA 4 Not in 4 Contender 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in



1313





Keyhole 4 Not in 4 Contender 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

LzLabs 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Product Challenger

Maintec 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Contender 4 Not in

Micro Focus 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Market Challenger

Mindtree 4 Product Challenger 4 Leader 4 Not in 4 Product Challenger 4 Not in

MOST 4 Not in 4 Contender 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

Mphasis 4 Product Challenger 4 Leader 4 Not in 4 Contender 4 Not in

NTT (UniKix) 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Contender

NTT DATA 4 Not in 4 Contender 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

PSR 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Contender 4 Contender 4 Not in

Raincode 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Contender

Software AG 4 Contender 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in



1414





SysperTec (Virtel) 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Market Challenger

TCS 4 Not in 4 Leader 4 Not in 4 Leader 4 Not in

Tech Mahindra 4 Contender 4 Leader 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

TmaxSoft 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Leader

TSRI 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Leader

T-Systems 4 Product Challenger 4 Product Challenger 4 Contender 4 Contender 4 Not in

Unisys 4 Product Challenger 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Rising Star 4 Not in

UST 4 Leader 4 Rising Star 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Not in

Vion 4 Not in 4 Not in 4 Contender 4 Not in 4 Not in

Wipro 4 Not in 4 Market Challenger 4 Not in 4 Contender 4 Not in

Mainframe Services & Solutions Quadrants

1616

Executive Summary

Who should read this report:

� Marketing and sales leaders should read this report to understand the relative

positioning and capabilities of service partners that can provide modernization services

to enable improved business planning and go-to-market strategy and providers that

enable improved business planning and go-to-market strategy.

� Operational leaders and finance leaders should read this report to understand ways

to differentiate, engage and manage relationships with mainframe modernization

service providers that enable optimal return on investment.

� IT and technology leaders should read this report to understand the strengths

and weaknesses of providers of mainframe modernization services, including their

offerings, capabilities, market presence, strengths, relationships with other mainframe

service providers and the way they employ the latest technologies and capabilities to

deliver reliable offerings, in keeping with changing enterprise needs and practices.

ENTERPRISE CONTEXTMainframe Modernization ServicesThis report to relevant to U.S.-based enterprises, evaluating providers that offer mainframe modernization services.

In this quadrant report, ISG assesses the current market positioning of providers that offer application modernization efforts such as introducing code repositories such as GitHub or similar options and DevOps integration and testing automation, including security testing.

Enterprises expect and demand solutions (and providers) that reduce millions of instructions per second (MIPS) costs, simplify access to data in mainframe environment, and increase development, deployment, and release timelines.




Service providers assessed in this quadrant offer legacy application

modernization, introducing code repositories such as GitHub or similar

options, DevOps integration and testing automation, including security

testing. Modernization retains the original programing language,

such as COBOL, adding architecture optimization and documentation

to enable agility. After the modernization is complete, clients can

embrace agile methodologies in the development and maintenance

of applications running on mainframe systems, including code

repositories, quality assurance and DevOps.

The service provider can assess a client’s application landscape to

propose a modernization roadmap, offering a modernization plan

that includes guidance on retaining the relevant applications on the

mainframe platform and transforming and migrating the relevant ones

to other platforms, enabling cost optimization.

Definition



MAINFRAME MODERNIZATION SERVICES

1717

Eligibility Criteria




� The participant should provide case studies around mainframe

modernization of either IBM Z, IBM AS/400 or Unisys ClearPath

mainframe applications.

� The case studies must include DevOps tools integration.

� The modernization must enable legacy programming languages,

such as COBOL, to build and deploy in line with modern continuous

integration and deployment best practices (for example,

implementation of COBOL CI/CD pipelines).

� Services must include application assessment, phased

transformation with robust testing and quality assurance,

application decoupling, system architecture, API development, and

future state application governance.

1818

ObservationsMainframe modernization is a mature market. Professional service organizations (PSO) and outsourcing

service providers have been focusing on improving their modernization skills for a long time. In addition,

they participate in the IBM partner ecosystem to constantly update their technology expertise. Most

providers focus on optimizing mainframe performance. According to these companies, their clients

understand the technology options to include DevOps in COBOL applications, but the market is not

gaining traction as expected. The Leader’s in this quadrant are those that have enabled and implemented

the most advanced modernization technologies to their clients.

Application portfolio assessment using automated tools is in use by top providers. With automated

tools, companies can identify dead code and optimize application logic to reduce errors and improve

performance. Most providers focus on developing APIs and microservices to improve mainframe

integration with cloud applications. Some replace batch jobs with serverless functions. These inclusions

help reduce MIPS capacity, thus reducing costs. APIs expose mainframe data and functions to be

consumed by other applications. In an ideal scenario, error-free COBOL code would run on the

mainframes and no future changes would be required, because all new functionalities would be developed

outside the mainframe, exchanging data through APIs. Some of the case studies indicate that this scenario

is a real possibility for many companies.


The following seven Leaders in this quadrant can provide a full scope of

modernization services:

� Atos is a global service provider with more than 104,000 employees

in 71 countries and generates €11 billion in revenue. It offers IBM

mainframe services, Atos mainframe servers (BullSequana), MFaaS

and mainframe modernization. Atos allows clients to explore many

alternatives to optimize their mainframe applications and improve

performance in their data center, in colocation sites or Atos’ hosting.

The company has more than 40 years’ experience in mainframe

services and help clients optimize and modernize their mainframes.

� Capgemini is a global service provider with more than 270,000

employees in 50 countries and generates €15.8 billion in revenue.

The company is a long-time IBM partner, making mainframe services

one of its core competencies. Capgemini’s modernization services

concentrate on assessing a client’s mainframe environment to

identify inefficiencies and optimize cost and performance. It provides

optimization on both application code as well as configurations,

operations and system architecture choices.

Observations (cont.)



� DXC Technology generates US$19.6 billion in revenue, with more than 138,000 employees in 70

countries. DXC Managed Mainframe Services provide IBM Z operation and support, including hosting,

storage and disaster recovery. The company has a large data center footprint in the U.S., providing

clients with many location choices and offshoring capacity to mitigate any skill-shortage concerns

that clients may have. DXC was one of the pioneering companies in providing mainframe data center

outsourcing, accumulating experience to offer leading services in mainframe modernization.

� Ensono provides managed infrastructure services, application services, and cloud, mainframe and

midrange services. It has 10 data centers in the U.S. and partners with AWS and Microsoft Azure,

enabling a comprehensive hybrid cloud platform that integrates mainframes. Ensono modernization

services include APIs, microservices and DevOps, which is an advanced approach to enable secure data

access over mainframe and cloud infrastructures.

� IBM delivers US$73.6 billion in revenue. IBM Global Business Services (GBS) provides mainframe

modernization and transformation services, which include consulting, application management and

global process services. The consulting and application management organization generated a revenue

of US$15 billion in 2019. IBM’s consultants, COBOL and legacy technology experts leverage leading-edge

IBM Z technology to deploy the best in mainframe modernization, including DevOps and automated

testing for agile development on the mainframe.

1919



� Infosys is a global service provider with more than 249,000 employees

in 46 countries and generates US$13.1 billion in revenue. North America

accounts for more than 60 percent of the company’s revenue. Infosys

Mainframe Services and Solutions include managed services, mainframe

modernization and transformation supported by a mainframe talent

pool of more than 24,000 experts. The company excels in application

development, leveraging its proprietary methodology, supported by a

vast partner ecosystem and robust delivery organization. Infosys has

earned the AWS Mainframe Migration Competency.

� UST is a global service provider headquartered in California with

more than 26,000 employees in 25 countries. The company’s portfolio

includes digital transformation, cloud infrastructure modernization,

data analytics, cybersecurity, experience design and system integration.

UST has a renewed focus on mainframe services. It offers legacy

application modernization, using leading vendor tools to re-engineer

applications, expose business functions and redesign the user interface

(UI), reducing MIPS requirements and improving the user experience

(UX).




2020




INFOSYS

Infosys has many clients in the U.S. and a large resource pool globally to successfully support

bold mainframe modernization programs.

Infosys’ Leader position is based on automation and offshoring. The company can supply senior COBOL programmers and mainframe experts onsite (staff augmentation), but clients would achieve better results when embracing offshoring, which best aligns with Infosys’ offer.

Comprehensive methodology: Infosys has developed a modernization program, with the motto: “Accelerate cost savings in legacy systems, Renew applications to make them digital ready, and Transform to next-gen application architecture,” also known as the A.R.T. framework. The program optimizes MIPS consumption, eliminates redundancies, moves data to lower cost cloud storage, deploys DevOps tools and CI/CD pipelines for agility, refactors batch in-memory, exposes functions and data through APIs, lifts and shifts mainframe to cloud, uses rule extraction to rewrite applications, and enables data analytics.

Mainframe modernization experience: Infosys has more than 30 years of mainframe services and 10 years of mainframe modernization experience. The company leverages LEX, its learning platform, to upskill its talents with modernization courses, including sandbox for hands-on experience. Its center of excellence comprises mainframe architects and experts who have participated in large and complex engagements, enabling them to identify and share best-in-class solutions. Infosys has more than 6,000 mainframe modernization professionals.

Automation focus: Infosys Mainframe Modernization leverages Infosys LEAP, an application management platform that provides automation for portfolio assessments, application code inspection and application testing. Automation enables Infosys to accelerate a client's modernization program.

Offshore capacity: Infosys has a large offshore operation to reduce clients’ risk of COBOL skills shortage.

Infosys has more than 249,000 employees in 46 countries, generating US$13.1 billion in revenue. In 2020, it announced plans to hire 12,000 employees in the U.S. over the following two years. North America accounts for more than 60 percent of the company’s revenue. Infosys Mainframe Services and Solutions include managed services supported by a mainframe talent pool of more than 24,000 experts. The Infosys Modernization Suite accelerates the modernization journey with hyper automation, leveraging the company’s extensive experience across modernization programs for more than 600 clients.

Caution

Strengths

Overview

2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Leader

ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant Report | April 2021 Mainframe Modernization Services

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Executive Summary

Who should read the report:

� Marketing and sales leaders should read this report to understand how providers

can help them develop and leverage a broad range of applications from multiple

environments to enable improved business planning and go-to-market strategy.

� Operational leaders and finance leaders should read this report to understand

ways to differentiate, engage with and manage relationships with mainframe service

providers to achieve optimal return on investment, including business performance

improvements.

� IT and technology leaders should read this report to understand the strengths

and weaknesses of providers, offering mainframe transformation services, including

their offerings, capabilities, market presence and strengths, relationships with other

mainframe service providers, and the way they employ the latest technologies and

capabilities to deliver reliable offerings, in keeping with enterprise business and market

change.

ENTERPRISE CONTEXTMainframe Transformation ServicesThe report is for U.S.-based enterprises, evaluating providers of mainframe transformation services for moving and modernizing mainframe to a modern developed environment.

In this quadrant report, ISG assesses the current market positioning of providers of mainframe transformation services. These providers can assess and rewrite legacy programming language applications written with COBOL, RPG, Fortran, and others that typically run-on mainframes.

The accelerating transformation of enterprises, further triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled enterprises to focus on transformation from legacy languages and technologies to the more advanced options as many systems could not withstand the load faced by during the pandemic. Given the widescale shortage of skilled professionals, enterprises are increasingly turning to service providers that can assess and rewrite legacy programming language applications based on different business needs.




This quadrant assesses application development and maintenance

service providers that have evolved their application modernization

methodologies to assess and re-platform, refactor, or rewrite legacy

programming language applications written with COBOL, RPG, Fortran,

PL/1, Natural and others, which typically run on mainframes. The main

target programming languages may include Java, .NET, C# and others,

enabling the same logic and business rules to run on any platform,

including the public cloud.

Clients that want to move their applications off the mainframe into

other infrastructure technologies can choose a service provider to

convert legacy code to programing languages suited to run on open

platforms. Destination servers can include HPC clusters or cloud

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). Data stored in mainframe-type

databases such as DB2 are converted to other SQL databases (many

options). A complete transformation should include UI translation

services, eliminating green screens while introducing modern graphic UI

for better UX.

Definition



MAINFRAME TRANSFORMATION SERVICES

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� The service provider must be able to reverse engineer legacy

applications to provide application logic documentation.

� The service provider must be able to automate code conversion tools

to reduce the time required to transform the applications.

� Optionally, the service provider can offer emulation systems to

run legacy applications on other platforms without rewriting code.

However, the provider should offer convincing case studies that

demonstrate the viability of the emulation to be considered.

� The participant should have data center infrastructure (mainframes,

servers, middleware, storage, databases and tools) to support the

transformation program. Optionally, the provider can show it has

partner resources that enable the hosting of the transformation

program.

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� Services must include application assessment, phased transformation with robust testing and quality

assurance, application decoupling, system architecture, API development and future state application

governance.

� The transformation should enable the client organization to operate Agile development and

maintenance with CI/CD automation.

With automation and cloud computing capacity, mainframe

transformation has become a secure path for any client. It is a growing

market, with increasing interest. Many factors drive this trend, which are

as follows:

� Business units pushing IT for more agility;

� The need to unify applications in the cloud and close the data center;

� The marketing push from AWS, Microsoft and Google, as all three

have launched mainframe migration programs, with incentives in

certain cases;

� The newer technologies that lower project cost and duration with

increased reliability;

� IBM pushing z15 upgrades triggers clients to seek help;

� End of support for legacy mainframes such as AS/400 and Unisys

Dorado OS.

Observations



2525


The service providers in this quadrant use several tools from different vendors, and they select the best

tool for each client needs. The Leaders have developed proprietary tools to integrate and orchestrate

the partner tools they use. For each client, the transformation project may deal with different languages,

particular programing styles and standards that the automation tools cannot understand, requiring expert

intervention. Projects can mix replatform and re-engineer, which adds complexity.

Transformation projects range from 12 to 60 months, requiring robust project management skills.

Planning and testing cycles consume most of the project time. Code conversion or compiling, emulator

installations, and database conversion use automation and run relatively fast.

We qualified 10 Leaders and one Rising Star in this quadrant. They are as follows:

� Accenture is a global professional services company with capabilities in digital, cloud and security.

The company has partnered with AWS, Microsoft and Google to develop special programs that focus

on migrating mainframes to the cloud. It can deliver cloud lift-and-shift and application re-engineering

to convert legacy code to new application architectures. Accenture uses leading tools to provide

mainframe emulation and code rewriting. In 2019, it acquired Caltec Scube, a niche provider of

mainframe migration and application code conversion tools to scale its technology to large enterprises.

Accenture cloud mainframe migration partnerships include Microsoft Azure and Google.




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� Atos is a global service provider with more than 104,000 employees

in 71 countries and generates €11 billion in revenue. Its portfolio

includes cybersecurity, cloud and HPC. It offers transformation

services that leverage a large application development organization

and its MIII framework. Atos offers a self-funded transformation

approach to enable enterprises to move out of their mainframes

at a low-risk pace. Robust technology enables rehosting of

mainframes for immediate savings, while automation tools power

smart application transformation. Its self-funded program promises

complete transformations to the cloud in three years.

� Capgemini is a global service provider with more than 270,000

employees in 50 countries and generates €15.8 billion in revenue. It

has large operations in the U.S., supporting clients from 44 offices.

The company offers many mainframe services and developed Code

Analysis Platform (CAP360) to accelerate application assessments

and application code transformation. Capgemini has a strong

focus on migrating mainframes to the cloud in partnership with Amazon, Google and Microsoft. The

company offers a robust solution, comprising its intellectual property, partner tools and experienced

practitioners. Capgemini is a Microsoft Azure partner for mainframe migrations.

� Infosys is a global service provider with more than 249,000 employees in 46 countries and generates

US$13.1 billion in revenue. Infosys A.R.T. Modernization is a framework that guides mainframe

transformation. It uses automated tools to assess a client’s portfolio, identifying the applications to

keep on the mainframe, replatform to cloud, or re-engineer to modern application architectures.

Infosys provides a comprehensive transformation program. Its cloud mainframe migration partnerships

include AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google.

� Fujitsu is a global company with more than 130,000 employees and generates US$35.4 billion in

revenue. It has a long history in mainframe technology and services. Mainframe migration to the cloud

is enabled by Fujitsu’s PROGRESSION™, an automated suite for application modernization. Clients can

escape from long assessments and architecture decisions to adopt a proven framework to rapidly

migrate out of the mainframe into Microsoft Azure with a cloud-native application written according

to Microsoft’s recommended code standards. Clients experience the benefits of object-oriented

applications. Fujitsu is a Microsoft partner for mainframe migrations.





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� HCL Technologies is a global service provider with more than

153,000 employees (called “ideapreneurs”) working in 50 countries.

It generates US$10 billion in revenue. It is listed by Google as

a mainframe modernization partner. HCL has developed a

comprehensive toolset to cover all aspects of legacy applications

transformation. Its toolset orchestrates several vendor tools, making

it one of the most complete offerings of the assessed companies,

which explains its high position in portfolio attractiveness.

� Mindtree is a global technology consulting and service company

with more than 21,000 employees in 15 countries and generates

US$1 billion in revenue. The company offers a full stack of

mainframe services, from infrastructure operations to application

development. Mindtree’s Mainframe and Midrange Center of

Excellence (MMS CoE) provides modernization principles and

proprietary frameworks that merge with partner tools, using

leading-edge technologies for rapid mainframe transformations and

migration to the cloud.

� Mphasis is a global service provider with more than 22,000 employees in 16 countries and generates

US$1 billion in revenue. The company offers an extensive service portfolio and has long experience

in mainframe technologies. Mphasis has a compelling zero-cost transformation program. It proposes

an application maintenance services (AMS) deal, with the promise of modernizing all systems in three

years. Ideally, clients would pay for Mphasis AMS the same amount they would pay for any provider,

with the advantage of converting legacy applications to modern technologies.

� Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) generates US$22 billion in revenue and has more than 469,000

consultants in 46 countries. Its transformation services are based on TCS’ MasterCraft™, a tool that

analyzes applications’ code and automates code generation. TCS is a strategic partner for hyperscalers,

and it has collaborated to develop mainframe migration programs with AWS, Microsoft and Google. TCS

can handle ambitious transformation programs.

� Tech Mahindra (Tech M) is a global service company with more than 121,000 employees in 90

countries and generates US$5.2 billion in revenue. The company has a global legacy modernization

center of excellence to support the modernization of mainframe assets, application interfaces and

business processes. Tech M employs sophisticated tools to address clients’ business needs, including

SaaS options to replace applications. It designs modern architectures that exploit cloud services and

hybrid cloud integration.





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� UST (Rising Star) is a global service provider headquartered in

California, U.S., with more than 26,000 employees in 25 countries.

UST has a renewed focus on mainframe migration to the cloud. The

company leverages a robust partner ecosystem and its experience

in customer experience design to deliver renewed functionality

and elevated UX. UST employs the best tools in the market to

deliver smart transformations. It is growing in the U.S. market at

an accelerated pace, positioning the company to enter the Leader’s

quadrant.




INFOSYSCaution

Strengths

Infosys’ toolset was designed to support bulk application transformations. Clients that prefer a phased approach should engage in a long-term deal. Similarly, it positions Infosys’ tools at the center, using partner tools for specific functions. Clients that want to use code conversion tools in isolation should prefer to use the tool vendor support or approach professional service partners.


Infosys’ toolset can cover all legacy and new technologies to accommodate all clients’

requirements. It offers a wide range of options to stay ahead of the competition.

Comprehensive, automated methodology: Infosys A.R.T Modernization covers all clients' needs to transform their mainframes with proprietary and partner tools. Infosys iLEAD scans mainframe assets to provide transformation insights. The application disentanglement feature finds scope boundaries, reducing dependency on legacy experts. Infosys’ SMF Log Analyzer parses mainframe logs to distinguish active and inactive components. Infosys’ Business Rules Extractor helps document and rearchitect legacy applications.

Vast partner ecosystem: Infosys’ partners include Micro Focus, TmaxSoft, Infinite Corporation, AveriSource, Heirloom, Raincode, Evolveware, Advanced (Modern Systems), Fresche, Verang, UniqueSoft (Updraft), MigrationWare, LzLabs and Blu Age. These strong partnerships enable Infosys to cater to all clients’ particular needs associated with programming languages, databases and platforms such as legacy Z, AS/400, Unisys and others.

Relevance to hyperscalers: Leading cloud providers such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google have selected Infosys as a top partner for mainframe migrations, with several public case studies available. Infosys accounts more than 1,000 projects delivered. High partnership levels enable Infosys to get advanced support for innovation.

Infosys has more than 249,000 employees in 46 countries, generating US$13.1 billion in revenue. The Infosys Modernization Suite accelerates the modernization journey with hyper automation, leveraging the company’s extensive experience across modernization programs for more than 600 clients. The suite comprises five integrated platforms that support multiple application modernization patterns through highly automated workflows. The A.R.T. framework encompasses tools to “accelerate” cost savings in legacy systems, “renew” applications to make them digital ready, and “transform” to next-gen application architecture. Infosys balances code modernization, application replatform and re-engineering to provide clients with a robust digital platform.

Overview

ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant Report | April 2021 Mainframe Transformation Services

3030

Executive Summary

Who should read this report:

� Marketing and sales leaders should read this report to understand the relative

positioning and capabilities of service partners that can help them build and manage

complex business management software integrations and data flows for improved

business data analysis and decision-making.

� Operational leaders and finance leaders should read this report to understand the

relative positioning of providers that offer MFaaS that enable high return on invest-

ment (ROI), including business performance improvements.

� IT and technology leaders should read this report to understand the strengths and

weaknesses of providers of MFaaS, including their offerings, capabilities, market

presence, strengths, relationships with other mainframe service providers, and the

way they employ the latest technologies and capabilities to deliver reliable offerings in

keeping with changing enterprise needs and practices.

ENTERPRISE CONTEXTMFaaS – Mainframe-as-a-ServiceThis report is relevant to enterprises in the U.S., evaluating providers offering Mainframe-as-a-Service (MFaaS) within mainframe environments.

In this quadrant report, ISG assesses the current marketing positioning of providers of Mainframe-as-a-Service in the U.S., based on the depth of service offering and market presence.

Our research indicates that the U.S. leads in the adoption of MFaaS when compared with other regions. The migration to the as-a-service model will enable an organization to transform its mainframe cost, from capital expenditures to operational expenses. It will also reduce the stress related to mainframe infrastructure upgrades, hardware maintenance costs and support-related expenditure. Therefore, larger enterprise customers tend to seek out service providers with a large and highly skilled workforce, advanced capabilities and a global presence.

Enterprises’ top priorities in using these offerings are to reduce operational costs, achieve quick turn around and improve customer satisfaction.

The common hurdles to migrate enterprise mainframe to the as-a-service model, especially during the current COVID-19 scenario, include high CAPEX and shortage of necessary talent among enterprises.



MFaaS – Mainframe as a Service

This quadrant assesses infrastructure service providers that offer

shared IBM Z mainframes under a pay-per-use contract model.

Services include facilities, hardware, connectivity, mainframe network

management, licensing, operating system and subsystems, tools, and all

maintenance services required to keep mainframe workloads running

according to the expected performance established upfront. MFaaS is

hosted on a provider’s data center or in the cloud.

Definition



MFAAS – MAINFRAME-AS-A-SERVICE

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MFaaS – Mainframe-as-a-Service



� The provider must use robust and secure data centers, compatible

with high performance and the availability expected from

mainframes.

� The provider must offer services such as job scheduling, performance

optimization, CICS©, batch, backup, restore, system upgrades,

security patches and other typical mainframe operations.

� The provider must be able to demonstrate the disaster recovery

effectiveness of its MFaaS infrastructure.

� Hosting facilities should offer low-latency connections to clients’

locations and the public cloud such as AWS direct connect, Azure

route and GCP direct connect. Carrier-neutral data centers are

preferred.

3232

� The provider must demonstrate the financial capacity to invest in and grow its mainframe operations.

� The company must have a hiring and training program to ensure skill availability in the future.

� The provider must offer high performance and security, which are included in service-level agreements

(SLAs) and corresponding contractual penalties.


Service providers of MFaaS own the data center and the mainframe

hardware. Mainframe capacity is offered over shared environments

and standard software and management tools. Variations to the model

exist. Some providers offer dedicated mainframes to certain clients,

maintaining the same business model — pay per use and MIPS- and

storage-based pricing.

The mainframe operations market has more players than MFaaS

because of the investment required to add mainframe capacity ahead

of demand. However, the installed MIPS market has been growing at

around 10 percent per year.

We observed that pricing strategy and contractual terms vary by

provider. They use MFaaS as a generic term, with minor differences

from mainframe operations services. MFaaS approximate to the

cloud IaaS model in terms of pricing but differs in elasticity because

mainframe workloads have always grown. Service providers do not

expect clients to have variable consumption monthly.

Observations



3333

Innovations in mainframe management and operations are compared to in-house mainframe shops, with

the heavy use of automation in both monitoring as well as operations. Some providers go one step ahead

to install logs and agents to enable rich dashboards where clients can monitor performance and trigger

service requests.

MFaaS is an extraordinary option for short-term deals (less than three years) to cover the period when

the client is transforming their applications. MFaaS eliminates the need for new investments and offers

security and scale.

ISG identified four Leaders in this quadrant and one Rising Star, which are as follows:

� Atos is a global service provider with more than 104,000 employees in 71 countries, generating €11

billion in revenue. Its portfolio includes cybersecurity, cloud and HPC. The company’s MFaaS offering

is based on more than 130,000 MIPS in data centers across the globe. Atos accumulates more than 40

years of mainframe experience with over 2,000 mainframe experts worldwide. Automation levels as

high as 70 percent and valuable R&D investments in HPC technologies, including quantum computing,

ensure that the company will continue to develop and improve its MFaaS portfolio.

� Cognizant is a global service provider headquartered in New Jersey with more than 289,000 employees

in 37 countries, generating US$16.6 billion in revenue. The company offers a full-stack IT services for



large accounts. Cognizant is an IBM Platinum Business Partner and

collaborates to integrate IBM mainframes, IBM Power Systems and

IBM storage solutions. Its MFaaS offers scalability and advanced

monitoring with real-time analytics to improve clients’ visibility

to utilization/consumption, performance and alerts for proactive

management. Its professional services can optimize workloads for

MIPS reduction and install CI/CD pipelines with automation to enable

agile development on the mainframe.

� Ensono has 10 data centers in the U.S. and partners with AWS and

Microsoft Azure. The company acquired Wipro’s U.S. data centers in

2018, transforming itself to a leading MFaaS provider. With a large

MIPS capacity, the company can offer clients many choices to host

their mainframe applications. Ensono onboarding includes resource

optimization, client hardware acquisition and staff hiring. Clients

benefit from stable and secure MFaaS that Ensono can integrate

with cloud infrastructures.



3434

� IBM reported US$73.6 billion in revenue last year. In 2020, it announced the spin-off of its GTS

organization. The new company generated approximately US$19 billion in revenue. Presently, GTS

organization provides mainframe operations and MFaaS. IBM offers the largest number of MIPS

and data center location choices, which may benefit low latency connectivity to clients’ branches.

With robust infrastructure, seasoned consultants and leading-edge mainframe technologies, IBM is

positioned to stay in the Leader’s quadrant for a long time.

� HCL Technologies (Rising Star) is a global service provider with more than 153,000 employees (called

“ideapreneurs”) working in 50 countries, generating US$10 billion in revenue. The company owns

six data centers in the U.S., including a Tier III in New Jersey. It hosts a mainframe lab in Sweden,

a mainframe center of excellence in the U.S., and another center in India. Robust automation and

offshore capacity make HCL an attractive provider for long-lasting engagements.




3535

Executive Summary


� Marketing and sales leaders should read this report to understand how providers

can help them develop and leverage a broad range of applications from multiple

environments to achieve improved business planning and go-to-market strategy.

� Operational leaders and finance leaders should read this report to understand

ways to differentiate, engage with and manage relationships with mainframe service

providers that ensure optimal return on investment, including business performance

improvements.


weaknesses of providers offering mainframe operations, including their offerings,

capabilities, market presence, strengths, relationships with other mainframe service

providers, and the way they employ the latest technologies and capabilities to deliver

reliable offerings, in keeping with enterprise business and market change.

ENTERPRISE CONTEXTMainframe OperationsThis report is for U.S.-based enterprises, evaluating providers of mainframe operations related to mainframe applications.

In this quadrant report, ISG assess the current market positioning of providers offering mainframe operations. Our assessment is based on the depth and breadth of providers’ service offerings and market presence.

The mainframe operations segment is mature and includes a full range of services related to mainframes, infrastructure and the cloud. Enterprises expect service providers to offer services, including consulting, managing, and monitoring mainframes; disaster recovery; database management; security and operating Linux. Enterprises look for services that address areas such as client and market challenges, cost savings, staffing risks, operation excellence and optimization.



Mainframe Operations

This quadrant assesses traditional outsourcing providers that have

long been offering mainframe services. Typical participants employ

experienced practitioners to cover legacy mainframe technologies as

well as the most recent mainframe releases.

Mainframe operation service providers offer skilled teams to keep

clients’ mainframes running. Services can be delivered on any hosting

facility (client- or provider-owned). Mainframe operation services exist

for a long time and include job scheduling, performance optimization,

CICS, batch, backup, restore, system upgrades, security patches and

other typical mainframe operations. Multiple options exist for hardware

and software ownership, upgrades and modernization responsibilities.

Definition



MAINFRAME OPERATIONS

3636

Eligibility Criteria Observations




� Robust mainframe operation capacity must be demonstrated through

case studies.

� The company must conduct hiring and training programs to ensure

skills availability in the future.

� The company must offer professional services for the management and

monitoring of CPU, memory, databases, operating systems and tools.

� Professional services must include patching services for operating

systems, middleware and applications; system upgrades; data center

security; network configuration; and system integration.

� The company must provide management dashboards, including

utilization reports, performance indicators, chargeback and other

reporting functionalities.

� Services must comply with ITSM best practices and include incident

management, problem management and release management.

� Ideally, the service provider should have sufficient mainframe capacity

to supplement its client capacity during peak times.

Mainframe operations is a mature market with constant consolidation. It comprises traditional data center

outsourcing providers that specialize in mainframes. The market is growing at around 5 percent each year

in terms of MIPS capacity, but not in terms of the number of competitors.

Some service providers reported client churn, because of clients migrating small mainframes to the cloud.

New clients come from in-house data centers. Clients choose mainframe operation services because of the

availability of custom configurations and access to mainframe skills.

We qualified 16 service providers. These service providers manage more than 9 million MIPS globally and

over 4.6 million MIPS in the U.S.

� Atos is a global service provider with more than 104,000 employees in 71 countries, generating

€11 billion in revenue. Its portfolio includes cybersecurity, cloud and HPC. Atos has been providing

mainframe operation services for more than 40 years and offers high-value mainframe services,

including Linux on IBM Z, big data analytics, blockchain and ML. With more than 2,000 mainframe

experts and large global mainframe operations, Atos can provide the U.S. clients with world-class

managed mainframe operation services.

� Capgemini is a global service provider with more than 270,000 employees in 50 countries, generating

€15.8 billion in revenue. It operates in 44 locations in the U.S. The company is a long-time IBM partner,

3737





making mainframe services one of its core competencies. A seasoned

operations team with large offshoring capacity and robust management

tools position Capgemini in the Leader quadrant.

� Ensono offers a broad portfolio to more than 200 enterprise clients

that are served by over 2,400 employees. It has 10 data centers in the

U.S. and partners with AWS and Microsoft Azure. These high-scale

data centers hold massive MIPS capacity. Ensono offers hybrid cloud

managed services that integrate client’s mainframe. Experienced staff

and strict focus on expanding mainframe services are the base for

Ensono’s Leader position.

� IBM announced the spin-off of its GTS organization, creating a new

company with approximated revenue of US$19 billion, serving 4,600

clients, which makes it one of the top 10 global service providers in the

IT service market. Mainframe operations has been part of GTS’ portfolio

for more than 40 years. IBM can support many outsourcing models,

from staff augmentation to full outsourcing, and contractual terms that

range from granular prices to monthly payments over consumption

baselines.

� Infosys is a global service provider with more than 249,000 employees in 46 countries, generating

US$13.1 billion in revenue. North America accounts for more than 60 percent of the company’s

revenue. The company has an ambitious plan to be the most preferred mainframe services partner

for enterprises within the next three years. Its mainframe operations rely on a robust service platform,

leveraging AI automation. Infosys maintains a center of excellence to share the best practices globally,

ensuring seamless services in all regions. It hosts a talent development program to attract and retain

mainframe experts.

� HCL Technologies is a global service provider with more than 153,000 employees (called “ideapreneurs”)

working in 50 countries, generating US$10 billion in revenue. It acquired Volvo Group IT services in

2018, providing it with additional expertise and a large mainframe footprint. The company owns six data

centers in the U.S., including a Tier III data center in New Jersey. It hosts a mainframe lab in Sweden,

a mainframe center of excellence in the U.S., and another one in India. HCL relies on automation to

differentiate operation services, with a focus on MIPS reduction and efficiency gains.

� Unisys (Rising Star) is a global service provider headquartered in Pennsylvania with more than 17,000

employees, generating US$2 billion in revenue. The company has been in the mainframe business since

1961. Unisys’ MCP for Azure enables legacy ClearPath Forward mainframe applications to run in the

cloud. The company offers mainframe operation services for systems running on-premises, in colocation

or in the cloud. There are many legacy Unisys systems in the U.S. that need to be modernized and

migrated to the cloud, providing Unisys with the opportunity to grow its footprint in this market.

3838




Infosys operates a sizeable number of clients’ mainframes in the U.S., leveraging automation

and offshore for optimum cost and assured access to skilled resources.

INFOSYS

Infosys’ mainframe services do not include mainframe hardware. It manages and operates clients’ hardware and software.

Optimization on transition: Infosys can modernize legacy applications to help clients reduce their MIPS consumption. The company inspects the application portfolio to eliminate redundancies, move data to low-cost cloud storage and refactor batch in-memory. Modernization can include APIs to enable data analytics and lifts and shifts of certain mainframe services to other platforms. Clients can run core applications, while transferring peripheral functionality to other platforms to reduce MIPS.

Managed services automation: Infosys has been investing to improve its service management platform, introducing intelligent automation to reduce human intervention. Infosys’ Live Enterprise is an AI-powered platform that enriches data visualization and service delivery management.

Operations expertise: Infosys leverages LEX, its learning platform, to upskill its talents. Its center of excellence comprises mainframe architects and experts who have participated in large and complex engagements to identify and share best practices. Infosys has more than 24,000 mainframe experts to support operations. In the modernization front it has over 6,000 consultants that have delivered more than 1,000 projects.

Offshore capacity: Infosys has large offshore operations to reduce clients’ risk of COBOL skills shortage.

Infosys is a global service provider with more than 249,000 employees in 46 countries, generating US$13.1 billion in revenue. In 2020, it announced plans to hire 12,000 employees in the U.S. over the following two years. North America accounts for more than 60 percent of the company’s revenue. Infosys’s Mainframe Services and Solutions include managed services, mainframe modernization and transformation. The company has an ambitious plan to be the most preferred mainframe services partner for enterprises within the next three years.

Caution

Strengths

Overview


ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant Report | April 2021 Mainframe Operations

4040

Executive Summary


� Marketing and sales leaders should read this report to understand how mainframe

modernization vendors can help them develop and improve business planning, go-to-

market strategy and related activities.


weakness of vendors offering modernization solutions, including their offerings, ca-

pabilities, architecture, and the way they employ latest technologies to deliver reliable

offerings that suit enterprise needs and expectations.

ENTERPRISE CONTEXTMainframe Modernization SoftwareThis report is relevant to enterprises in the U.S., evaluating vendors of modernization software within the mainframe ecosystem.

In this quadrant report, ISG assesses the current market positioning of vendors offering mainframe modernization software to enterprises in the U.S., based on the depth of service offerings and market presence.

Even during the current times of business and economic uncertainties, ISG sees a growing need for modernization software that enable code assessments and code conversion of legacy applications. Typically, it encompasses reverse engineering, business logic mapping, business rules extraction, code review and inspection, documentation, emulators, frameworks and application development tools that can accelerate code and application modernization. The range of competencies among vendors makes it more challenging to identify and engage with the most suitable partners.




This quadrant ranks the software and toolsets that enable legacy

application code assessments and code conversion. Mainframe

modernization software includes reverse engineering, business logic

mapping, business rules extraction, code review and inspection,

documentation, emulators, frameworks, and application development

tools that can accelerate code modernization and application

modernization.

Enterprises and service providers require tools to perform their

mainframe modernization and transformation. This quadrant includes

vendors that supply the modernization toolset and eventually partner

with global system integrators (GSI) that deliver modernization services.

Mainframe modernization software outcomes can include logic flows,

data architectures, automated code conversion, serverless functions,

APIs and microservices that accelerate the mainframe modernization

program.

Definition



MAINFRAME MODERNIZATION SOFTWARE

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Eligibility Criteria Observations




� Vendor should provide case studies that illustrate its software

capabilities.

� The software should be licensed or delivered as a service, enabling

client autonomy.

� The vendor must have mainframe specialization and offer mainframe-

specific tools.

� Generic code conversion tools or wide-scope server/cloud optimization

tools are not included.

� The product must be available and in use by clients for more than one

year.

� The solution must have a robust service support organization or service

partner ecosystem in the U.S. to ensure enterprise support.

The mainframe modernization software market is expanding, with some vendors reporting more than

20 percent growth. The increased interest in modernizing mainframes is driven by the desire to migrate

applications to the cloud and shut down data centers. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated cloud adoption

in 2020 because many enterprises discovered they should have better business continuity solutions, and

the cloud showed reliability, availability and scale during such difficult times.

Modernization software in this report includes application re-engineering tools, code compilers, emulators,

database conversion tools and many other tools used for assessing, replatforming, refactoring and

rewriting mainframe applications. Only four of the 16 companies evaluated are very large vendors (IBM,

Google, Micro Focus and NTT DATA). Of those four, two acquired niche vendors to leverage their tools

(Google and NTT DATA). The market is dominated by mid-sized companies, which have deep technology

expertise, and a small number of practitioners.

Most efficient tools enable clients to continue changing their legacy code until transformation occurs.

Some tools are differentiated by their capacity to synchronize legacy code and new code. Despite the

method, it is important to reduce the need for code change freeze windows. Some tools persist in

the client environment after the modernization project. It is often the case for emulators, application

development tools, operation tools, monitoring platforms and code compilers. Clients need to understand

the solution beforehand.

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There are no best or worst methods, each has its pros and cons. Clients

need to understand the modernization method and the implications

of their choice. From a high-level perspective, emulators enable faster

migrations to the cloud, but they impose residual costs. Code compilers

eliminate emulators but introduce other residual costs. Re-engineering

eliminates residual costs, but the project is more expensive. There is

always a trade-off; this report highlights the most evident points, but

clients need to study the consequences further.

No tool has all features to cater to the needs of the clients. In many

cases, clients need to combine two or more tools from different vendors

to cover all programming languages and methods required in their

particular environment. In most cases, if not all, clients do not have the

skills or training required to use the modernization tools themselves. It is

recommended to hire professional services from the vendor organization

or their certified partners.

For this report, ISG has considered the seven most common legacy

languages for comparison purposes (COBOL, Natural, PL/1, Assembler,

JCL, REXX and Easytrieve). Some vendors support more languages that were not been considered for their

portfolio attractiveness.

We have qualified 16 vendors in this quadrant and identified five Leaders and one Rising Star. They are as

follows:

� Advanced is a software vendor and IT service provider headquartered in the U.K. with more than 2,500

employees, generating US$330 million in revenue. The company focuses on application modernization

and cloud migration services. In 2019, it acquired Modern Systems and later created its Modernization

Platform-as-a-Service (ModPaaS) available on AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and Oracle

Cloud, which gives it excellent visibility in the market. The company’s differential is the automatic

generation of object-oriented applications in Java or C#.

� Blu Age is a software vendor and service provider headquartered in France. It is a privately held

organization with 130 legacy modernization experts. The company has been providing code

transformations for 15 years. Its patented technology is available on AWS, Microsoft Azure and Oracle

Cloud. The toolset generates cloud-native Java Spring with a modern Angular/HTML/Bootstrap UI. The

toolset re-engineers applications, considering business rules, application behavior and dependencies to

automatically design object-oriented programs.

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Observations (cont.) � Google is part of a US$161 billion revenue company, headquartered in

California. In 2020, Google Cloud acquired Cornerstone Technology and

its product G4. Google has been investing to power G4 technology with

AI. Clients can access G4 through some certified partners or Google’s

professional service organization. Once set, the automated platform

extracts business rules and converts both programs and databases to

run on Google Cloud Platform. Final applications can run in any cloud.

Typical projects take a few months to complete and deliver consistent

results with nearly 100 percent automation.

� TmaxSoft is a software vendor headquartered in Illinois with more than

1,700 employees in 20 countries. TmaxSoft OpenFrame is a platform

on Linux, Unix or in the cloud, to run legacy applications without

code changes. It provides batch and other tools, code compilers and

database conversion tools. It offers a scalable replatforming solution

to rapidly reduce costs, while providing modernization and improved

integration. TmaxSoft partner program enables several system

integrators in the U.S. to provide support to mainframe modernization.

� The Software Revolution, Inc., (TSRI) is a software vendor headquartered in Washington. It offers

JANUS Studio®, a framework for automated software assessment and documentation, transformation,

and refactoring. The company has completed more than 130 mainframe modernization projects.

The company’s size and geographic presence limit its portfolio attractiveness. The tool offers the

most comprehensive functionality for application re-engineering, and the company’s professional

organization has seasoned professionals and good case studies.

� Heirloom Computing (Rising Star) is a software vendor headquartered in California, founded in 2010.

Heirloom refactors mainframe applications to cloud-native Java programs that can scale horizontally

on AWS and other clouds. The company offers a modern refactoring toolset that attracts system

integrators and cloud providers' attention because of its code refactoring speed and scalability.



Methodology

Methodology


The research study “ISG Provider Lens™ 2021 – Mainframe Services & Solutions”

analyzes the relevant software vendors/service providers in the U.S. market, based

on a multi-phased research and analysis process. It positions these providers based

on the ISG Research methodology.

The study was divided into the following steps:

METHODOLOGY

1. Definition of Mainframe Services & Solutions market

2. Use of questionnaire-based surveys of service providers/vendor across all

trend topics

3. Interactive discussions with service providers/vendors on capabilities

& use cases

4. Leverage ISG’s internal databases & advisor knowledge & experience

(wherever applicable)

5. Detailed analysis & evaluation of services & service documentation based

on the facts & figures received from providers & other sources.

6. Use of the following key evaluation criteria;

− Strategy & vision;

− Innovation;

− Brand awareness and presence in the market;

− Sales and partner landscape;

− Breadth and depth of portfolio of services offered;

− Technology advancements.


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Authors and EditorsISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant Report | April 2021

Distinguished analyst and author, Pedro brings extensive experience in research of the Americas and SEMEA (Southern Europe Middle East and Africa) markets. With more than 30 years of experience in sourcing, he has developed vendor assessments plus contract restructuring, services scope and IT benchmarking programs for diverse vertical markets in the Americas and Asia Pacific. Before joining ISG, Pedro was a partner of TGT Consult and managing vice president at Gartner Inc., responsible for the consulting business in APAC and Latin America.

Pedro Luís Bicudo Maschio, AuthorPartner Author

Srinivasan is a senior analyst at ISG and is responsible for supporting and co-authoring Provider Lens™ studies on AWS Ecosystem and Insurance BPO Industry. His area of expertise lies in the space of engineering services and digital transformation. Srinivasan has over 6 years of experience in the technology research industry and in his prior role, he carried out research delivery for both primary and secondary research capabilities. Srinivasan is responsible for developing content from an enterprise perspective and author the global summary report. Along with this, he supports the lead analysts in the research process and writes articles about recent market trends in the industry.

Srinivasan PN, Enterprise Context and Global Summary Analyst Research Analyst


Authors and EditorsISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant Report | April 2021

Mr. Aase brings extensive experience in the implementation and research of service integration and management of both IT and business processes. With over 35 years of experience, he is highly skilled at analyzing vendor governance trends and methodologies, identifying inefficiencies in current processes, and advising the industry. Jan Erik has experience on all four sides of the sourcing and vendor governance lifecycle: as a client, an industry analyst, a service provider and an advisor. Now as a research director, principal analyst and global head of ISG Provider Lens™, he is very well positioned to assess and report on the state of the industry and make recommendations for both enterprises and service provider clients.

Jan Erik Aase, EditorPartner, Principal Analyst and Global Head – ISG Provider Lens/ISG Research

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 75 of world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change man-agement; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and tech-nology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.

ISG Provider Lens™ | Report: Mainframe Services & SolutionsApril 2021© 2021 Information Services Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

http://www.isg-one.com

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